Hopi Friendlies

The Friendlies were a faction of the Hopi tribe which existed from 1894 to 1906. The faction was amenable to assimilation by the United States government, sending their children to white schools to have their culture taken away from them and have them be raised in the white American fashion. The Friendlies became rivals with the Hopi Hostiles, a group of traditionalist Hopis who were opposed to assimilation. Tensions between the two groups continued until 1906, when the conflict reached its climax. In the village of Shongopavi, the US government arrested Hostile leaders who refused to send their children to school, and the Friendlies forced the Hostiles of Oraibi to flee during the winter after a tug-of-war match which would decide the victor of the rivalry, and they founded the new village of Hotevilla. The Friendlies therefore won the conflict, and they came to dominate the tribe.